Moving forward after Syracuse teacher protest: Do what's best for the children (Editorial)

These events are an occasion for Contreras to reassess and recalibrate. But we urge her not to retreat from the transformative work she has begun.

We are a few days removed from the extraordinary and disheartening meeting of the Syracuse Board of Education at which members of the Syracuse Teachers Association declared "no confidence'' in Superintendent Sharon Contreras and demanded her ouster.

The STA balled up three years of grievances, hurt, frustration and anger, heaved it at the board and Contreras, then turned its collective back on the assembly and marched out.

It was a childish, short-sighted and ill-timed gesture that diverts everyone's attention from the tasks at hand: fixing Syracuse's broken schools and educating Syracuse's children.

As the people in the schools every day, teachers' concerns carry considerable weight. We recognize they are under intense pressure. They have been bombarded with the rollout of the Common Core curriculum, teacher evaluations and the wholesale remaking of the district's persistently underachieving schools. Overlaying these frustrations are significant changes to student discipline in response to an investigation by the state Attorney General that found students' civil rights were being systematically violated. The lack of school decorum is a problem.

Their frustrations boiled over, teachers say, because Contreras and the board are deaf to their concerns. They aren't being consulted. They need clearer guidance. They need more support. They resent outsiders brought into the district.

Contreras has to own some of that. While the Common Core and teacher evaluations were dictates from above, she is responsible for their implementation. Her personnel choices, her management style, her communication skills are fair game for criticism. The events of this past week are an occasion for her to reassess and recalibrate. But we urge her not to retreat from the transformative work she has begun.

The school board owns it, too. The board hired Contreras and gave her wide latitude to remake the schools. It let tensions fester too long, with explosive results.

When the STA made its argument against Contreras personal, the undercurrent of race broke into the open. That is a divisive, counterproductive and potentially ruinous road.

After such a breach, how do Syracuse schools move forward?

The adults who care about Syracuse's kids -- the teachers, the administrators, the parents, the politicians, the community at large -- need to find a way to get past the finger-pointing and the recriminations. Mayor Stephanie Miner is taking a positive step, bringing Contreras and STA President Kevin Ahern together in the next days and weeks to begin unraveling the ball of grievances. We wish her luck.

The district's problems aren't solved by grandstanding. We encourage the STA to be a partner in finding solutions. We call on all parties to find common ground, starting with a simple proposition: Do what's best for the children.